With researchers recently unearthing 65 million-year-old fossilised dinosaur eggs at a village in Ariyalur district, academicians have asked authorities to protect the geological site for future scientific analysis.
The cluster of eggs, of what is believed to be the most aggressive Carnoaur, buried in a river bed in the village, was discovered by researchers from Salem Periyar University, Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, and Bharathidasan University here.
The entire locality in Ariyalur is filled with fossils and other materials belonging to Jurassic age due to sea transgression, reported to have taken place in the belts of Tiruchirappalli, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts about 65 million years ago, P Chandrasekar, a senior geologist, told PTI.
However, he said, all the materials removed on surface exploration and mines excavations could not be considered as eggs of dinosaur. These items should be subjected to tests and analysis like carbon dating to know the facts, he said.
Most of the time, these specimens are phosphoric nodules, which look like large sized eggs and when broken open interior crust was seen in black colour, he said.
"The interior crust in black is nothing but a raw material for phosphorus or phosphoric chemical production. It is dangerous to meddle with it since phosphoric content is liable to burst any time and the contents are highly toxic to human beings," he said. Chandrasekhar said there was destruction of the river bed surface by individuals and even experts in thearea for years and there is a lack of mechanism or law to protect the valuable materials.
Eight mega sized cement plants were working in the belt and about 60,000 tons of cement was produced daily. Over one lakh tons of lime stones were crushed and pulverised every day and most of the lime stone slabs comprised precious fossil materials, he said.
These precious lime stones should be conserved for posterity and future scientific analysis, he said.
He said the cement factories could open a museum and keep at least a few samples of wood, animal and plant fossils which were dug out along with lime stone slabs. The geology and mines departments of the state government should also make adequate intervention in controlling digging in the belt.
Chandrasekharan, chairman of Earth Park Trust, a registered body in the district, said the Centre and the state governments should take steps to start a fossil museum at a proper location in Ariyalur district.
The trust had made several appeals to state government to allocate about five acres of land for starting the museum.
While the museum at Kolkata had allocated a big hall to keep Ariylur fossils, there was no such attempt to preserve the fossil wealth here in Arialyur, he said.
When in 1981 some dinosaur fossils were found in Gujarat, the government there declared the sites as protected area with a purpose to install a fossil museum, he said. Ponnavaiko, vice-chancellor of Bharathidasan University said the university waskeen on to establish a museum in the locality.
Ariyalur district Collector T Abraham had assured researchers that the administration was ready to cooperate with the proposal that would help students and research scholars.
Department of Earth Sciences, Bharathidasan University had approached Department of Earth Sciences and the Department of Science and Technology of the Centre seeking Rs 15 crore assistance to it for establishing a fossil museum in the area.
The university officials said the museum could be located as open field research area in about 2.5 acres of land which would also comprise infrastructures like research centre, science laboratory and a hostel.
Chandrasekar, an octogenarian, said it was in 1951 that the first dinosaur egg was found in Ariyalur during a mining and it was displayed in the campus of state owned Tamil Nadu Cement Corporation Ltd.
Similarly in the year 2000, one more egg was received and after complete analysis, studies and tests inlcuding C-14 by experts in India and abroad, it was proved to be a genuine dinosaur egg.
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